Blogging Interns Annoy Some Corporations

Posted on May 31, 2006

The New York Times has an article about some corporations that don't want interns blogging about work. Comedy Central was mentioned for asking Andrew McDonald to change the name of his blog. His blog title now reads "I'm An Intern in New York" instead of the more exciting title, "I'm a Comedy Central Intern"

For Mr. McDonald, the Web log he created, "I'm a Comedy Central Intern," was merely a way to keep his friends apprised of his activities and to practice his humor writing. For Comedy Central, it was a corporate no-no - especially after it was mentioned on Gawker.com, the gossip Web site, attracting thousands of new readers.

"Not even a newborn puppy on a pink cloud is as cute as a secret work blog!" chirped Gawker, giddily providing the link to its audience.

But Comedy Central disagreed, asking him to change the name (He did, to "I'm an Intern in New York") and to stop revealing how its brand of comedic sausage is stuffed.

"They said they figured something like this would happen eventually because blogs had become so popular," said Mr. McDonald, now 23, who kept his internship. "It caught them off guard. They didn't really like that."

Blogebrity provided a Cliff Notes version of the article: "If you're an intern and you're blogging, be careful what you say. You might get fired and have to fall back on a book deal or start your own company rather than work for minimum wage."

Blogebrity also notes that this was probably the first blogging and getting fired type of article that left out Heather Armstrong. For shame New York Times. You know Dooce is required to be in every single fired for blogging article.

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